.\" RCSid "$Id: rcontrib.1,v 1.15 2018/01/26 18:31:23 rschregle Exp $"
.TH RCONTRIB 1 5/25/05 RADIANCE
.SH NAME
rcontrib - compute contribution coefficients in a RADIANCE scene
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rcontrib
[
.B "\-n nprocs"
][
.B \-V
][
.B "\-c count"
][
.B \-fo
|
.B \-r
][
.B "\-e expr"
][
.B "\-f source"
][
.B "\-o ospec"
][
.B "\-p p1=V1,p2=V2"
][
.B "\-b binv"
][
.B "\-bn nbins"
]
{
.B "\-m mod | \-M file"
}
..
[
.B $EVAR
]
[
.B @file
]
[
rtrace options
]
.B octree
.br
.B "rcontrib [ options ] \-defaults"
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Rcontrib
computes ray coefficients
for objects whose modifiers are named in one or more
.I \-m
settings.
These modifiers are usually materials associated with
light sources or sky domes, and must directly modify some geometric
primitives to be considered in the output.
A modifier list may also be read from a file using the
.I \-M
option.
The RAYPATH environment variable determines directories to search for
this file.
(No search takes place if a file name begins with a '.', '/' or '~'
character.)\0
.PP
If the
.I \-n
option is specified with a value greater than 1, multiple
processes will be used to accelerate computation on a shared
memory machine.
Note that there is no benefit to using more processes
than there are local CPUs available to do the work, and the
.I rcontrib
process itself may use a considerable amount of CPU time.
.PP
By setting the boolean
.I \-V
option, you may instruct
.I rcontrib
to report the contribution from each material rather than the ray
coefficient.
This is particularly useful for light sources with directional output
distributions, whose value would otherwise be lost in the shuffle.
With the default
.I -V-
setting, the output of rcontrib is a coefficient that must be multiplied
by the radiance of each material to arrive at a final contribution.
This is more convenient for computing daylight coefficeints, or cases
where the actual radiance is not desired.
Use the
.I -V+
setting when you wish to simply sum together contributions
(with possible adjustment factors) to obtain a final radiance value.
Combined with the
.I \-i
or
.I \-I
option, irradiance contributions are reported by
.I \-V+
rather than radiance, and 
.I \-V-
coefficients contain an additonal factor of PI.
.PP
The
.I \-c
option tells
.I rcontrib
how many rays to accumulate for each record.
The default value is one, meaning a full record will be produced for
each input ray.
For values greater than one, contributions will be averaged together
over the given number of input rays.
If set to zero, only a single record will be produced at the very
end, corresponding to the sum of all rays given on the input
(rather than the average).
This is equivalent to passing all the output records through a program like
.I total(1)
to sum RGB values together, but is much more efficient.
Using this option, it is possible to reverse sampling, sending rays from
a parallel source such as the sun to a diffuse surface, for example.
Note that output flushing via zero-direction rays is disabled with
.I \-c
set to zero.
.PP
The output of
.I rcontrib
has many potential uses.
Source contributions can be used as components in linear combination to
reproduce any desired variation, e.g., simulating lighting controls or
changing sky conditions via daylight coefficients.
More generally,
.I rcontrib
can be used to compute arbitrary input-output relationships in optical
systems, such as luminaires, light pipes, and shading devices.
.PP
.I Rcontrib
sends the accumulated rays tallies
to one or more destinations according to the given
.I \-o
specification.
If a destination begins with an exclamation mark ('!'), then
a pipe is opened to a command and data is sent to its standard input.
Otherwise, the destination is treated as a file.
An existing file of the same name will not be clobbered, unless the
.I \-fo
option is given.
If instead the
.I \-r
option is specified, data recovery is attempted on existing files.
(If 
.I "\-c 0"
is used together with the
.I \-r
option, existing files are read in and new ray evaluations are added
to the previous results, providing a convenient means for
progressive simulation.)\0
If an output specification contains a "%s" format, this will be
replaced by the modifier name.
The
.I \-b
option may be used to further define
a "bin number" within each object if finer resolution is needed, and
this will be applied to a "%d" format in the output file
specification if present. 
(The final integer will be offset incrementally
if the output is a RADIANCE picture and more than one modifier has
the same format specification.)\0
The actual bin number is computed at run time based on ray direction
and surface intersection, as described below.
The number of bins must be specified in advance with the
.I \-bn
option, and this is critical for output files containing multiple values
per record.
A variable or constant name may be given for this parameter if
it has been defined via a previous
.I \-f
or
.I \-e
option.
Since bin numbers start from zero, the bin count is always equal to
the last bin plus one.
The most recent
.I \-p,
.I \-b,
.I \-bn
and
.I \-o
options to the left of each
.I \-m
setting are the ones used for that modifier.
The ordering of other options is unimportant, except for
.I \-x
and
.I \-y
if the
.I \-c
is zero, when they control the resolution string
produced in the corresponding output.
.PP
If a
.I \-b
expression is defined for a particular modifier,
the bin number will be evaluated at run time for each
ray contribution.
Specifically, each ray's world intersection point will be assigned to
the variables Px, Py, and Pz, and the normalized ray direction
will be assigned to Dx, Dy, and Dz.
These parameters may be combined with definitions given in
.I \-e
arguments and files read using the
.I \-f
option.
Additional parameter values that apply only to this modifier may be specified
with a
.I \-p
option, which contains a list of variable names and assigned values, separated
by commas or semicolons.
The computed bin value will be
rounded to the nearest whole number.
(Negative bin values will be silently ignored.)\0
For a single bin, you may specify
.I "\-b 0",
which is the default.
This mechanism allows the user to define precise regions or directions
they wish to accumulate, such as the Tregenza sky discretization,
which would be otherwise impossible to specify
as a set of RADIANCE primitives.
The rules and predefined functions available for these expressions are
described in the
.I rcalc(1)
man page.
Like
.I rcalc,
.I rcontrib
will search the RADIANCE library directories for each file given in a
.I \-f
option.
.PP
If no
.I \-o
specification is given, results are written on the standard output in order
of modifier (as given on the command line) then bin number.
Concatenated data is also sent to a single destination (i.e., an initial
.I \-o
specification without formatting strings).
If a "%s" format appears but no "%d" in the
.I \-o
specification, then each modifier will have its own output file, with
multiple values per record in the case of a non-zero
.I \-b
definition.
If a "%d" format appears but no "%s", then each bin will get its own
output file, with modifiers output in order in each record.
For text output, each RGB coefficient triple is separated by a tab,
with a newline at the end of each ray record.
For binary output formats, there is no such delimiter to mark
the end of each record.
.PP
Input and output format defaults to plain text, where each ray's
origin and direction (6 real values) are given on input,
and one line is produced per output file per ray.
Alternative data representations may be specified by the
.I \-f[io]
option, which is described in the
.I rtrace
man page along with the associated
.I \-x
and
.I \-y
resolution settings.
In particular, the color ('c') output data representation
together with positive dimensions for
.I \-x
and
.I \-y
will produce an uncompressed RADIANCE picture,
suitable for manipulation with
.I pcomb(1)
and related tools.
.PP
Options may be given on the command line and/or read from the
environment and/or read from a file.
A command argument beginning with a dollar sign ('$') is immediately
replaced by the contents of the given environment variable.
A command argument beginning with an at sign ('@') is immediately
replaced by the contents of the given file.
.PP
.I Rcontrib
supports light source contributions from photon maps generated by
.I mkpmap(1)
with its
.I -apC
option. Enabling photon mapping is described in the
.I rtrace 
man page along with its relevant settings. In photon mapping mode,
.I rcontrib
only supports contributions from light sources, not arbitrary modifiers.
The
.I -b
option is supported along with its associated ray variables, as
discussed above. Ray coefficients are also supported via the
.I \-V-
option. Using fewer photons than there are light sources for the photon
density estimates results in omitted contributions, thus the bandwidth
is clamped accordingly and a warning is issued. 
.SH EXAMPLES
To compute the proportional contributions from sources modified
by "light1" vs. "light2" on a set of illuminance values:
.IP "" .2i
rcontrib \-I+ @render.opt \-o c_%s.dat \-m light1 \-m light2 scene.oct < test.dat
.PP
To generate a pair of images corresponding to these two lights'
contributions:
.IP "" .2i
vwrays \-ff \-x 1024 \-y 1024 \-vf best.vf |
rcontrib \-ffc `vwrays \-d \-x 1024 \-y 1024 \-vf best.vf`
@render.opt \-o c_%s.hdr \-m light1 \-m light2 scene.oct
.PP
These images may then be recombined using the desired outputs
of light1 and light2:
.IP "" .2i
pcomb \-c 100 90 75 c_light1.hdr \-c 50 55 57 c_light2.hdr > combined.hdr
.PP
To compute an array of illuminance contributions according to a Tregenza sky:
.IP "" .2i
rcontrib \-I+ \-f tregenza.cal \-b tbin \-bn Ntbins \-o sky.dat \-m skyglow
\-b 0 \-o ground.dat \-m groundglow @render.opt scene.oct < test.dat
.PP
To perform an annual simulation of 365 daily sun positions in photon mapping
mode:
.IP "" .2i
rcontrib \-I+ \-h \-V \-fo \-o c_%s.dat \-M lights \-ap contrib.pm 365
scene.oct < test.dat,
.SH ENVIRONMENT
RAYPATH		path to search for \-f and \-M files
.SH AUTHOR
Greg Ward
.SH "SEE ALSO"
cnt(1), genklemsamp(1), getinfo(1), mkpmap(1), pcomb(1), pfilt(1), 
ra_rgbe(1), rcalc(1), rfluxmtx(1), rmtxop(1), rpict(1), rsensor(1), 
rtrace(1), total(1), vwrays(1), ximage(1)

